One of the things that makes me incredibly sad is when I hear people say, "Oh, we're waiting until the kids are grown to have a nice home. For now, I just want cheap stuff that doesn't make me cry when they break it." First off, that's SUCH a long time to not love your home. Your home is your haven. Your place to relax and rejuvenate. How can you do that when your home doesn't make you happy?

A while back, I was flipping through the channels and came across a Cary Grant marathon just as Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House started. Funny thing is, seventy years after the movie was released (and the book it was based on was written), people are still making those same mistakes.

That magical holiday season between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day is one of my favorite times of the year. In our house, we put Christmas decorations up the day after Thanksgiving every year. (Mostly because I’m as excited as a kid about it.)

By the time New Year’s Day rolls around, though, I’m just SO SICK of looking at it all. Everything feels cramped, cluttered, and overdone. I want it all put away. NOW. So, I pack everything up and spend about a week enjoying the clean emptiness left behind. The problem is—much like a new year’s resolution to go on a ridiculously strict diet—that feeling doesn’t last. What you really want is something fresh and new.

If you’ve never had to deal with the tragic quirks of a poorly planned house, you are one lucky woman. I’m guessing, though, that you’ve had at least one home with issues that make you wonder on a regular basis about the sanity of the person who came up with the house plans. And oh, lady, you’d better believe that I’ve seen some weird stuff over the years.